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BEIJING: Authorities in the Yangtze River Delta are calling for cross-region environmental legislation to achieve better water quality in Taihu Lake, China's third-largest freshwater lake, that has been plagued by pollution for years.

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Zhang Quan, director of the Shanghai municipal environmental protection bureau, has submitted a proposal to the ongoing NPC session, calling for the establishment of a central commission on the protection of Taihu Lake water quality and comprehensive cooperation among regions in the upper and lower reaches of the lake.

Although the three regions, including Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai municipality, have done a lot in collectively fighting water pollution, efficient coordination is lacking, Zhang said. Self interests are usually prioritized above the overall improvement of Taihu Lake water quality, he said.

"For example, regions on the upper reaches of the lake sometimes disregard the interests of the lower reaches by discharging excessive pollutants into the lake in pursuit of local economic development," he said.

"That's why we need to promote environmental compensation so that the lower reaches would be compensated for any pollution caused by its neighbors in the upper reaches," he said.

The environmental compensation mechanism, which was already in place in Jiangsu, stipulates that cities on the upper reaches must compensate those in the lower reaches if their pollutant discharge exceeds the maximum limit.

In the first round of compensation finalized at the end of 2008, provincial capital Nanjing paid 18,000 yuan ($2,600) to the city of Changzhou, which in turn paid 180,000 yuan to Wuxi on the lower reaches of the lake.

The mechanism needs to be extended to the whole Taihu Lake area, and more needs to be done in overall pollution control and information sharing among the regions, Zhang said.

He also said the current governing body for the area is affiliated with the Ministry of Water Resources and is only responsible for flood prevention and utilization of water resources. It cannot address water pollution problems that are becoming increasingly serious today.

Zhang's call has won support from Mao Xiaoping, mayor of Wuxi, Jiangsu province.

"It is crystal clear that water pollution is not simply the responsibility of a single city, and to cure that problem, it needs concerted efforts from all those involved," he said.

Mao also said his government has closed more factories than it has allowed to open in recent years, in an effort to curb industrial pollution.

Taihu Lake has witnessed massive outbreaks of blue-green algae in recent years despite efforts to cut pollution discharges into the lake.

One such outbreak disrupted water supplies to 1 million residents of Wuxi in 2007.

The village of Marda is located 9 km northeast Salfit city. It houses a total population of 2200 inhabitants and occupies a total land area of 9020 dunums, out of which 500 dunums comprise built up area. Of the aforementioned village total, More than 3600 dunums (33% of the village total lands ) were seized for the construction and the expansion of Ariel settlement. Constructions of the Segregation Wall started in Marda village late in 2004. Shortly after, it was halted following a series of protests and objections by the affected Palestinian land owners and farmers who submitted all related land ownership documents to the Israeli high court in an attempt to prove their ownership of the lands and stop wall constructions in the village. The court suspended all works until further discussion and reviewing. Nevertheless, in March 2005, the commander of the Israeli army in the West Bank, Ya'ir Neve, signed a new military order stating the confiscation of 197 dunums of Marda village lands for Wall construction. The aforementioned Israeli military order contradicts the latest version of the amended Wall map which was issued by the 'Israeli Ministry of Defense' on February 20th, 2005, claiming that the Wall works had been stopped in this section (about 129 km long) for further discussion and debate.

At least 1000 dunums of agricultural and arid lands of Marda village are expected to be confiscated or separated behind the Wall. In addition, about 1000 long-lived olive trees which are considered the primary source of living for the affected Palestinian families have been either destroyed or uprooted in addition to 800 trees of similar types will be separated behind the Wall. This number is likely to increase as work goes on from one place to another south of Marda village, which, eventually, will be totally besieged between the settlement of Ariel in the south and the Trans Samaria highway in the north. Animal breeders will also be affected by the loss of grazing areas and water resources as vast areas of pastures and several cisterns will be separated behind the Wall and access to them is denied. Ever since the occupation of 1967, the village of Marda has been under the successive series of Israeli violations targeting humans and lands as followed: According to LRC field work, a total of 44% of Marda village lands are already seized or will be seized or separated once the Wall is completed. These lands are divided as followed: 1. 3660 dunums for Ariel settlements; 2. 1000 dunums for Wall constructions; 3. 120 dunums for constructing Samaria High Way # 1; 4. 110 dunums for constructing Samaria Highway # 2. 5. A total of 2410 olive trees were either uprooted or separated as followed: o 1000 olive trees have been uprooted and 800 others will be separated by the construction of the Segregation Wall; o 240 olive trees uprooted for constructing the Samaria Highway #1; o 230 olive trees were uprooted for constructing the Samaria highway #2; o 140 olive trees were burned at the hands of Israeli settlers. Before the settlement of Ariel was built, Marda used to have 50% of the land planted with wheat and barley, 15% planted with figs, grapes, almonds and 35% for olive growing. Of the land they can currently farm, 70% is for olive growing. Other land is used to grow barley and wheat. Approximately 2,000 dunams cannot be farmed because of settler violence and land confiscation to build the wall. Each family used to earn around 2,000 JD (around $2,500) per year from the olive oil. Now they cannot sell their olive oil and are lucky to earn even 1,000 JD per year. Although the village has its own spring and used to be self-sufficient in terms of water resources, since 1986 the water has been polluted by the settlement of Ariel. The settlers in Ariel have their sewage draining into Marda’s land. This is easy to do because of Marda’s location, at the bottom of the hill where Ariel sits. This pollutes not just their water, but also theeir land making even more of it unsuitable for farming. Because of this water pollution, Marda buys its water from Ariel. Therefore, Ariel has control over the water supply and they often reduce the water to such a low pressure that it can not reach people’s houses

Flooding caused by Wall Israeli occupation forces established the Segregation Wall around the settlement in 2004 which caused the confiscation and separation of hundreds of fertile lands surrounding it. In addition, these forces placed large water tunnels beneath the route of the Wall which is placed at the edge of a mountain under which a number of Palestinian villages and lands are present. This situation has led to a number of flooding incidents the latest of which took place at the beginning of this month after large quantities of rain befell on the vicinity of the settlement (124 mm in 14 hours) causing flooding through these tunnels and, subsequently, the spoilage of a large number of dunums.

Rain mixed with sewage floods sweeping over agricultural land in Marda village, (Salfit district), Photo courtesy of Salfit municipality.

The following Photo was taken in 1950, in Marda. Most of the people in the photo are family members. Other guests are either from AlBa'th Party or from Laborers Union. The uncertainty is due to that Hosni Saleh and Naim Saleh, in the photo they are the two men at the front raw, half setting at the right and left of the photo, both were active in the AlBa'th Party and Laborers Union also their colleague (the guests). The location of the photo is beside a spring called Smeeta, in Arabic Ain Smeeta.